Tales of a mechanic: book one
by Alixzander GearHeart
Summary: In wartorn equestria, two great alicorns control the northern and southern civilizations. Each is vying for total domination of the skies, land, and sea, but one mechanic doesn't want to be any part of the steam war. Read as he realizes the truth behind the start of this war and his struggle to escape its clutches. Rated T for violence, suggestive language, crude humor, and blood..
1. Responsibility

Alright, I've dcidd my attempt to have a steam punk pony in ponyville was a terrible idea. So now I'm writing mlp as if it were in the fictional steampunk era. Hopefully this one won't suck. It's gonna be a Celestial empire vs. Lunar empire fic, and it will possibly be split into a saga. Hopefully you guys will like it.

'Twas the year 1209 A.C. (meaning its been 1209 years since Celestia began her rule) and the land of equestria was fraught with the struggles of two warlords and their armies. Celestia, ruler of the northern lights, was trying to keep the world under her control, oppressing any who stepped out of line, and semt them to the factories where brass weapons were being made for her soldiers. Luna, ruler of the southern embassies, was much kinder to her subjects, giving them a choice to fight, and granting great benefits to those who joined. Those of her soldiers who were maimed in battle, were given steam powered replacements. All who were mechanics were given their own protection squad as mechanics could turn the tide of a battle, especially if one of the stem engines powering her airshipss decided to overheat or explode.

However, there was one pony, that was fighting for Celestia, that had plans to get away. A way to escape the clutches of the two warlords, a way to live in peace. However, the two governments would never allow him to escape. This is his story.

The loud whistling and explosions from the boiler room had woken me up from my shallow slumber. I got up and shook out my dark brown mane, droplets of sweat flinging in every direction. I just stood there trying to wake up for a few seconds, wondering why that boiler had to be my alarm clock this week. Last week I had invented the damned thing, and now Celestia was forcing me to watch over it constantly. As I reveled in my foolishness, I began groping about in the dim haze for my goggles, just a simple brass frame with some polarized lenses, and maybe a few modifications I made. As I cantered over to the door, I realized my goggles were still on my head, burried in my tangled mane.

"Of course you're in there and not where you should be," I said to them, pulling them down over my eyes and flipping a switch on them, causing them to whir as electricity ran through the lenses, activating the photon strips in them and lighting my path.

I made my way past all the bulky pipes and large gauges until I came to a large boiler in the center of a room about seventy or so feet from my quarters. I read the gauge and realized that the pressure was much too high and opened one of the venting valves and let the steam inside travel somewhere else. If only somepony would finish those steamballs that I had started working on. I had nopony to blame except myself.

I had stopped work on those when my father had been frozen alive by the super pressurized steam exploding out of the container. He being an earth pony could do nothing to save himself. Of course I had stood there watching him freeze then shatter as I sat there behind my magical shield. It was a traumatizing event to say the least.

I closed the valve again once the pressure was down to an acceptable level, and I continued walking down the hall of the airship. I traveled through a maze of bronze and steam, sweating through my shirt and leather jacket. As I passed by the seamstress' room, a hat was shoved onto my head by qn unknown pony. As I tuened around I saw a good friend of mine, Rarity.

"Why Gear, you look simply smashing in that new top hat. It's from my new line of clockwork clothing. How do you like it?" She smiled at me in her brown and black dress, sporting an airship cadet hat on her own head.

"Well Rarity," I said as she pulled a hand mirror in front of me. The hat was rather handsome, and a clock was integrated into it, with all the gears showing and everything.

"I, uh. Well it's very interesting, to say the least. I think I'll keep it. How much?" I began pulli g out my wallet but Rarity stopped my hoof.

"Oh darling, as long as you wear that hat and tell people where you got it, the advertising more than pays for the hat." She turned and walked back to her sewing machine and started fixing some ripped uniforms.

I smiled and waved as I headed towards the mess hall. They usually have something for me to eat. As I reached the door I was tackled in the gut by a pink blur. As I regained my composure, I saw a pink mare lying on the ground with her face in my lap. I began to think some dirty thoughts but stopped when I saw she was actually knocked out. I looked back to the door and saw that a griffin was standing there laughing and pointing to us. As I looked the pink pony over, I saw there was a claw shaped gash in her side. It was bleeding pretty badly, and I almost vomited at the sight. I got up and put her on my back and walked over to the door. I made sure my chronometric pistol was loaded, already aiming at the griffin.

"Hey you, did you do this to this mare?"

"What's it to ya?" It replied, sizing me up and swaggering over.

"Nothing, just want to know." I replied coolly.

"Well then yes, it was me." Bang, there was a pile of dust where the griffin was.

I walked away, knowing that someone would figure out it was me eventually, seeing as I invented the weapon that sped up the aging process that much. I slowly entered back into my room, and closed the door behind me. I layed the unconscious mare on my bed and went to the bath to get some hot towels. I kept them under the steam vent so they were always ready in case I cut myself on a loose screw. I came back to the bed and layed them down on the gash, wincing as I saw how pale she was. I walked over to the phone and called the onboard doctor. He actually gave me the idea for the chornometric pistol, being a time-traveler he had plenty of information on the aging process.

"Doctor whooves, I have a pony here who was attacked by a griffin, what the griffin, well let's just say they won't be doing anything to anypony soon. Yeah. Any chance you can do some damage control there. Yeah they don't exist in this time plane anymore so you can bring in a past them. Thanks. And when can you get here?"

"I'm already here. So let's see this mare you're so interested in." He smiled coyly and snickered as I blushed.

"I'm not interested in her, I don't think." As a mechanic, falling in love usually meant trouble. When a mechanic fell in love, he was expected to have a foal within the year, to pass his genes on to the next generation. This made many mares not want to get into a relationship with them, leaving them heartbroken.

"So, what are her wounds like hmm..." he lifted off the towels and his eyes widened.

"Gear, we need to get her to the emergency operating quarters immediately. Do you still have the key to the fast car in the service tunnels?"

"Yeah, but-"

"No time. Just go." He grabbed the mare in his front two hooves and disspeared when I blinked.

I ran to the service tunnels and hopped into my car. I drove throuh the service tunnels as fast as I could, ignoring the massive bursts of steam. As I reached the hatch underneath the operating rooms I slammed on the brakes. I burst throuh the hatch and immediately had my forelegs covered in white sleeves and my head covered in a white surgeons mask.

"Wait, I'm the surgeon?"

"Yes, you see, I don't have a degree in surgery, only basic medics, and I can't sew. You are the steadiest hand I know with all those small and delicate creations you make. So..." he hoofed me a curved needle and some waxen thread.

I looked at the dying mare before me and made a decision. I began to puncture the edge of one wound with the needle and went to the other side and did the same, pulling the sides together. I did it agaian, and again, and again, and again. By the time I finished stitching the final gash together, I had sewn at least fifty stitches and was covered in blood. I set the needle down as Doctor whooves came up to me. He patted me on the shoulder and gave me a rassuring smile.

"You did good Gear, you did good. Now I assume you understand that she won't be able to do anything on her own for a week or so."

"Yeah why?" Then it occured to me what he was gonna ask.

"Oh no doc. I can't do this, dont you dare ask me that."

"Gear, you're the one who saved her. By my authority you are now her keeper. Until she is able to functio on her own, you are responsible for her and her survival."

"Doc. Come on."

"No Gear, you're not getting out of this." His gaze turned from caing to harsh in a split second. "I order you to take care of this ponynand you will not dissapoint me." He stalked over to the door and pulled a lever, causung it to shudder and slide out of the way.

I looked over to the sleeping mare on the operating table. She had been undressed and now I had a full view of her body. She had a beatiful physique, with nothing but curves. Her cutie mark was three balloons. A bit odd for an airship soldier, but still intriguing enough.

I slung her over my back after redressing her, and began walking back to my quarters. This was hoing to be a long week.

Hopefully this one is better than my last attempt. Now everything is steampunk yay!


	2. Assignment

Chapter two...oops my clock is malfunctioning brb...

I sat on the edgeof my bed as I waited for the filly I was looking after to wake up. I had told the cook about my situation, laughing as he listened to me tell him that I was now her keeper, and he was bringing our rations up to my quarters. I was tapping my hooves on the bed, when the springs began to creak. I got up and saw the pink filly stirring in her sleep. When she opened her eyes, she started to freak out, and attempted to get up then cried out in pain as she felt the stitches in her side. I could hear my next door roommate laughing, yelling throuh the walls for me to keep her quiet in bed. I banged on the wall and told him to shut up, getting another bout of raucous laughing. As I turned back to the bed, I saw she had scrunched back into the corner of my room, and looked like a frightened foal. I sighed as I walked to her, hoping to get her back into the bed. She bolted as soon as I got close.

"Oh no you don't," I said as I grabbed her with magic and set her down on the bed, receiving a muffled cry of pain. "The doctor says you aee not to get up until at least tomorrow, and you are off duty until next week. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes." She said, obviously worn out from that short exertion. She yawned and I pulled the covers up to her head. Just then, Mrs. Cake, the cook's wife, came in with our food. The door to my room slid along its track and clanked into place as the gears inside shifted.

"Hello Gear, I see your charge has awakened." She smiled at me and placed the food on the small table in the middle of my room.

"Hello Mrs. Cake, and she's not my charge, she's old enough to have been in my graduating class."

"Well then, introduce me to your 'acquaintance' please. I'd love to meet the first mare in such a long time to come into your life." She snickered as I blushed at the comment.

"Well, uh, Mrs. Cake, this is uhhh..." I realized I didn't know the pink mare's name, even though I was taking care of her. I looked over for an answer, smiling akwardly.

"Pinkie, my name is Pinkie."

"What a delightfully eccentric name. Glad to meet you dear, now where do you work on this ship?"

Suddenly Pinkie slumped and looked away from us. She pawed at the bed, obviously not having an answer to the question. She then looked up at us.

"If I tell you can you promise not to tell anyone? And I mean Pinkie promise. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick in a cupcake in my eye." She glared at us until we agreed and said her promise.

"Alright, well. I'm a...a...a stowaway." She hid behind her hoofs as we just stared at her. Mrs. Cake was the first to talk.

"Oh, you poor thing. I'll tell you what. You can help out in the kitchens with my husband and I." She hugged Pinkie until she let out another cry of pain.

"Oh dear, I didn't know you were still so tender. Sorry." Mrs. Cake trotted over to the door. "Well see you later GearHeart. Mr. Cake will be gald to know we'll have an extra hand soon."

"Bye Mrs Cake. I'll be by later to fix the stove, again. Try not to break it anymore." I laughed as she waved goodbye and the door slid closed.

"Alright Ms Pinkie. I think you should eat and get some rest. I'll be back later, if you need anything, dial 000 on the phone, it'll call my boss, the head mechanic, and just ask for Mr Heart or GearHeart. I'll try to get here as fast as I can. Bye."

"Wait!"

"What?"

"I just wanted to say thank you, for saving me."

"No problem bye."

As I walked out of the room I heard her grab one of the tins of food. I closed the door behind me and climbed the ladder in the hall up onto the main deck and jumped off. I passed another mechanic working on one of the cannons, and being watched by the captain of our airship, Twilight Sparkle. She was standing behind him, obviously impatient.

"How much longer till this cannon is operational again. We don't have much more time until we come face to face with the lunar air patrol. And without these cannons we won't stand a chance... to think celestia chose a Germane pony to be our weapons specialist. Sometimes I wonder about her..."

I walked on past without stopping to talk. Ahead of me stood the glass above the mess hall, streaming light into the lower deck. I grabbed one of the sets of bronze wings and strapped them onto my back, preparing to glide down into the kitchen to save time. I opened one of the panels in the frame and dropped down. After about ten feet of freefall, I opened the wings to their fullest extent, and glided down into the kitchen, almost crashing into a large pot of soup. I stopped mid air as I was grabbed by a yellow aura.

"Now now Gear, you know better than to use those without a propulsion engine." Celestia walked over and set me down lightly.

"Sorry Your Majesty, I didn't think I'd need one going down into the mess hall." I chuckled nervously as I wondered why our princess had decided to come and see over our ship personally.

"You may be wondering why I am here, my faithful subject. I am here on a matter of utmost importance. Is there somewhere more privaye we can talk?"

She looked eager to talk so I pressed my hoof into a hidden panel on the wall and a hole opened up into the ground. Celestia's eyes went wide but returned to normal and she jumped down into the room beneath the kitchens. It was a room built for me by me. It wasn't even in the blueprints for the building. As I hoppee down after her, the hole closed up with a hiss as the hydraulic lock slid into place.

"Sometimes even I am surprised to find things like this on my ships. Tell me, when did you make this one. It seems like it was built into the main framework of the ship."

"Well, as a mechanic, I'm not supposed to give away secrets of the trade."

"Fair enough GearHeart. Now, onto more important matters. Our scouts in the southern empire have uncovered a war machine of great power that had been thought to be destroyed a millenia ago. We have hidden it for over ten years, hoping to repair it. Yet even our most acclaimed mechanics of the past ten years, the masters of the pre-steam eras, have been unable to coax the machine to life. I'm asking you to discover its secrets, and don't argue with me. I've seen firsthand what you can do..."

_Four years ago..._

_He had been humiliated in front of the entire engineering class, having his machine collapse from using to thin a metal. He vowed to get revenge on his classmates, for sabotaging his perfect invention, his entire work, gone in one moment. He put the last spring into place as he examined his work. His entore body was integrated with a metal monstrosity. _

_He walked into the room, breaking the door frame as he did. As everypony looked at him his horn started glowing. Up from uis back sprung two steam powered gatling guns. As they rotated all the students began to run, but to no avail. After the first bullet left the barrel, ponies began dropping dead._

_An hour later, after he had purged the school he dropped the steam powered suit and took off running. In the Lunar empire, murder was punishable by death and for all the lives he had taken, he would most likely get worse. _

_After two days of running he had passed out in the sun. When he had awoken, he was in a hospital bed. He beganto panic and tried to strangle the nurse, but Celestia hsd walked in and subdued him. She walked over to him and spoke calming words._

_"Now, I have seen you kill over two hundred trained mechanics on your own, and they your own kind. Now under any normal circumstances I'd have you executed. But since you seem to have more to you than the expendable greasemonkey, I'm going to give you a chance. You will serve under me as a mechanic. But step out of line once and I'll hand you over to my sister. Now tell me, what is your name my little pony?"_

_"My name...is...Gearheart..."_

Present...

"Alright Celestia, as you wish. And if I fail as the others have, what then?"

"You shall meet their fate..."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Alright, glad you are so submissive still, you leave in two weeks."


	3. The Grease Puddle

As I ambled out of the kitchen, weighed down with several desserts the Cakes had given me in payment for fixing their stoves and ovens, I began to wonder what I was supposed to do with that pink mare in my room. I was supposed to take care of her for the week, but since she was now permanently residing in my room, due to her not having one and none being free, I had no idea what to do with her. I suppose I could leave her with the Cakes, but their quaters were getting cramped already with the two new foals. Maybe I could just take her with me, Celestia won't mind if I bring a cook with me if she's under my jurisdiction. I resigned to ask Whooves about it later.

Still lost in thought, and not paying attention to where I was going, I tripped over a low pipe in the hallway and fell face first into a puddle of grease. As I struggled to keep the cakes from falling by containing them in a magical field, I attempted to stand up. But I slipped in the puddle and fell down, the cakes all falling down, until a blue blur came flashing by. As I slowly and carefully rose to my feet, covered in a generous coating of the blackish brown sludge, I brushed my now ruined mane out of my eyes. What I saw came as a shock to me. Standing about five feet away was a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane, dressed in a Wonderbolt squadron uniform.

"Hey, thanks for the hoof," I said, as she handed me back my cakes, but kept one behind her back. "Uhhhh, not to be mean, but you still have one of my cakes." She smiled with a blush on her cheeks and offered it out to me.

"Heh, sorry, it just looked so awesome! I just couldn't resist." She brushed the back of her head with her hoof and laughed nervously.

"Ya know what, since you saved mu cakes andnwere so nice to offer it back, I'll let you keep it."

"Thanks mister uhhh..."

"Gearheart."

"Yeah thanks. I'm Rainbowdash. I havent eaten since yesterday eveing. Been out on a super important scouting mission."

"Oh really."

"Yep. Anyways gotta fly."

"Wait, since I gave you that cake, could you do me a favor." She looked back at me with fear in her eyes.

"Look, no matter what those flight ponies say about me, I am not that kind of pony!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Wait, so you're not... ummm...nevermind. It's nothing. Anyway what did you need?"

"Well there's this mare in my quarters..."

"Oh please don't tell me you want me to get her out."

"No, I just need you to watch her while I take my shower. As you can see, I'm not really in my full glory." I gestured to my ruined jacket, coat, and mane. Oddly enough my top hat had escaped the grime of the accident.

"Oh sure, that'll give me time to eat my cake. So lead the way." She smiled and began to hover.

"Alright then, its just around the bend."

About five minutes later we came to my door. I flipped a switch and it slid aside, revealing Pinkie to be lying on my bed, reading a book, obviously bored out of her mind, as it was Pride and Ponydice. She looked up from the book with a smile, but instantly darkened when she saw me.

"What happened?"

"Well I fell in a puddle of grease, long story short, Rainbow here is gonna keep you company while I clean up."

"Oh, okay. Nice to meet you Rainbow. I'm Pinkie Pie."

"Nice to meet you too."

As I walked down my small hall I heard them continue to talk on what I expected to be mare related matters. I slid the door to my bathroom open. I figured I could leave the door open since the other two were preoccupied. I turned on the faucet of the tub and started to undress. I threw my jacket, shoes, and pants in a pile on the ground, and my clock hat top hat onto a hook on the wall. When the water had filled up the tank, I decided to turn off the faucet, which left my plot and 'drill' fully exposed. As I turned the gear shaped handles, I heard a snicker behind me and then the ru ning of hooves. I pushed it out of my head as I could still hear the girls in the other room.

As I slid into the warm water, I heard the girls break out into raucous laughter. I began to scrub my coat and mane with the special soap given to mechanics. I didn't know why it was so special but it got the grease out and that's all I cared. I continued to scrub myself as I listened to them laugh and chatter. I had to admit, it was nice to hear some laughter fill my haunted life. It was a change from the screams I heard in my sleep.

I got out of the tub and pulled a towel around my hindparts. I grabbed my top hat off the rack and checked the time. It said 7:30, which meant I still had time to wash my clothes. But as I reached for my clothes off the ground I was surprised to see that they had already been collected. I continued inti my living room and found that Rainbow and Pinkie were saying goodbye and that Rainbow had my clothes.

"Did you take my clothes from the bathroom?" I said remembering the laughter I had heard earlier. Rainbow looked over to me.

"Huh, no, like I said, I'm not that kind of filly. Your fillyfriend here got them and asked me to take em by the washrooms on my way back to the flight deck."

"Alright, wait what? She is not my fillyfriend!" My face had become beet red by then and the girls were laughing at me.

"Well you could've fooled me. She strode on in there like you were pretty intimate. By the way, I love tattoos." She rubbed her flank against mine, and I rewarded her with a fierce blush.

"Sorry but I'm not really looking for a relationship right now. Thanks for taking my laundry though."

"Sure, no problem. See ya round." With that she saluted and flew out the door. I walked over to my dresser and grabbed out my black silk bathrobe. It was covered in gears and wrenches and on the right shoulder was a print of my cutie mark. As I turned around I saw Pinkie had stripped down.

"GearHeart, I still need my bandages changed. I know enough about medics to know that they need to be changed." She walked over to me and just sat there.

"Okay." I bent down and began untying the knots with my teeth, as I wasn't skilled enough to do fine work as this. Once I had gotten the knots undone I began unwrapping the tape and eventually peeled off the gauze pads. The swelling had gone down but it still wasn't pretty. I grabbed some fresh padding and wrapped it up in clean white gauze.

"Well, that's it. Goodnight.

"Am I still sleeping on the bed?"

"Yeah, you might as well, youve had a rough day, not to mention making this the most interesting I've ever had."

"Okay. Goodnight." She lay down on the bed while I lay down on the couch. About five minutes after I shut the lights off, I felt the chill of the night, when only the lower decks were heated. I was on the second to top deck and my heat was shut off. Usually I hadn't minded it, as I was under four or five blankets on my bed. But without my blankets my teeth began to chatter. I felt a warm body get in and cuddle against my flank.

"P-p-pinkie, what are y-you d-doo-ooing-g-guh?"

"Well you sounded like you were cold, I figured you might need some warming up." She snuggled closer to me.

"Alright, thanks." I said, already warming up.

"Goodnight, GearHeart..."

"Call me Alix, goodnight..."


End file.
